Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”, she speaks many languages – not all of them human – and her bright blue hairactually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

My Thoughts:

Why did I pick up this book?

I have heard mostly good stuff about the series and I just could not take the fact that I have not put in any effort to get the book using whichever means. I saw it available at the library and I told myself Get the book already and stop contemplating.

The Plot:

This book is insane. There’s reincarnation with chimera and angels and the whole teeth thing. I loved it how Laini Taylor gel them all together (though it was confusing at times but I still want to know what will happen) and I would not mind if the book had a few more pages so that all this new info sink in. It is not based on any mythology that existed but a whole new world Laini Taylor created. So I’ll try to summarise this whole concept behind the book without much confusion but warning its gonna spoil you.

So our MC Karou she is an art student in Prague and she carries a sketchbook with her all the time. In her sketchbook, there are drawings of mythical creatures which she claims she has seen before. She has no idea where her origins were and she is raised by four chimera. She runs errands for the Brimstone (the head of the 4) like going to black market auctions and getting teeth from trader. So we have no idea what these teeth are for until the very last 10 -15% of the book. SO what’s in the middle. Basically interaction with our next MC. He’s an angel looking for Karou (his reasons were not explicitly explained). So Akiva once loved a chimera Madirgal and they had an illicit love affair. He felt remorse because Madirgal died because of him as later explained in the book, he was the one who approached her knowing the dangers of doing so.

And Karou was getting to know him and Akiva’s siblings to get away from Karou or history would repeat itself. And their commotion got the cops involved and the angels didn’t care and took off the glamour on their wings which shocked on lookers. Akiva’s siblings want to hurt Karou but she got away and Akiva managed to catch up with her.

When Akiva saw Karou’s wishbone, it then occurred to him that Karou was not human and he told the story of him and Madrigal.

SO the angels and chimera were always at war and Brimstone, decided to let the warriors who died in the battles to reincarnate and for that period the chimera always won. And he mentioned before, in order for him to use magic he has to pay a price which is pain. And the pain comes from people who have their teeth extracted. And also the teeth are used with other gemstones to complete create a body for the souls to go into and their memories still intact.

In Karou’s case she does not have the Hamas on her hand and she cannot reincarnate. That’s what the other Chimera believed. But Brimstone knows that it has nothing to do with that and its got to do with the will of the souls. During her execution, Brimestone managed to collect her soul and put her in Karou’s body and also erased her memories. And the book end when Karou made that connection.

Overall: The plot is just so crazy that I can’t imagine how deep this book went. The pacing was great and I can’t wait to know what happens next since Karou and Akiva wants to end the war but Brimestone is now dead.

The Characters:

I don’t really know them yet as you can see from my thoughts of the plot, the book has more of plot than characters. But I have a feeling that I will love them and feel attached to them in the sequels. Karou and Akiva’s may become lovers because Karou may recollect back her memories and the relationship may rekindle as Akiva still had feelings for Madrigal/ Karou. There is a lot of mystery revolving around the war between Chimera and Angel. I love Brimstone, he brings Karou up like his daughter and tried to protect her from her past life. But sadly he’s dead no so are the other Chimera. Though Karou is not really their child they still took care of her and even let her live a normal human life which I felt was really nice of them.

The writing:

So the book is written in third person perspective and alternates between characters and time. It was kind of confusing as the author did not state which character is it written from and it took a while to digest and get used to. There was a portion when Akiva told Karou his past, we sort of time travelled back to then and it was written mostly in the third person perspective of Madrigal. I think that’s very cool instead of Akiva said/told. That part felt really alive and real it was as if it was happening at the moment an very realistic and more flashback-ish feeling. I really look forward to the sequels to more of such writing. Its intricate and almost flawless at the same time.

What do I look for in the sequel?

I doubt Brimstone and the rest are really dead as they played quite a portion in this book. I’m looking forward to them finding out the cause of the war and the route to finding peace for both sides. I’m looking forward to knowing Karou and Akiva better and Karou getting back her memories and another realisation/ theory strikes her. I really can’t wait to read the sequels. Now the third one is already out, I guess I’m going to marathon through the two.

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About Me

Lil' Book Owl is a blog owned by Belinda (18) who loves reading. I wanted to share my thoughts on the books I read and I did some research on how people blog about books/ write their reviews before starting my own one. A the beginning stages, the blog went through various changes and I have decided to settle down with this. I started blogging back in feb/mar 2013 and up till today, I did not regret my decision.